Biodiversity management and conservation

ExxonMobil PNG’s biodiversity strategy is aligned with PNG’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan and the Policy on Protected Areas, and provides a strategic roadmap for the sustainable use and management of the country’s biological resources.

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Biodiversity management and conservation

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Papua New Guinea is a country of unique biodiversity with a large proportion of its fauna and flora that is found nowhere else on Earth.

Birds-of-paradise, echidnas and tree kangaroos are widely known and often have great cultural significance for local communities in Papua New Guinea. Less well known is that the flora and smaller fauna of PNG are not only incredibly diverse but remain poorly documented, and plants and animals that are new to science are being discovered every year.

With an estimated 5-10 percent of the world’s plant and animal species contained within PNG, ExxonMobil PNG recognises the importance of nurturing and protecting this unique environment. As a result of the biodiversity assessment of the PNG LNG upstream project area, many new plants and animals have been recently discovered.

In 2010, ExxonMobil PNG developed a biodiversity strategy built on extensive stakeholder consultation, which included the PNG Government. The biodiversity strategy outlines how project-related impacts on biodiversity are assessed and managed over the long term. It also provides the basis for the identification and conservation of biodiversity values in the project area.

For the first time in Papua New Guinea, and over 2000 years since it was believed to have ended, evidence of Lapita pottery was discovered across seven sites at the LNG Plant during the Project’s construction phase. The unearthing of these materials at the LNG Plant site is extremely important in understanding the human history of settlement in Papua New Guinea.